He is housed by a professor, Westford, who is both Alex’s former college instructor and Kiara’s father. He is expelled from school REACH, a local government program designed for youth with criminal backgrounds, takes him in. The first few days of school proceed well until, for reasons unknown to him, someone plants evidence of drug trafficking in his personal effects. In Boulder, Carlos looks forward to building a future for himself that he can be proud of. There, he is placed in the care of peer guide Kiara Westford. Having left his Mexican pre-college education unfinished, he enrolls at the local school, Flatiron High. Central to his decision to move is to get out of the gang life, having been entrenched in criminal activity to pay for his family’s needs and keep them safe. Rules of Attraction begins just as Carlos moves to Boulder and settles into the apartment of his brother Alex.

The novel received positive criticism for expertly blending the genre of the bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story, with the modern problems of drug trafficking, immigration, racism, and criminal justice reform.

There, he is framed for narcotics possession, is sent to a rehabilitation youth program, and falls in love with his mentor’s daughter, Kiara. The novel follows high schooler Carlos Fuentes who emigrates to Boulder, Colorado from Mexico to stay with his brother. American author Simone Elkeles’s young adult fiction Rules of Attraction (2010) is the second book in the series, Perfect Chemistry.

Simone elkeles books in order